Happy pills boom as the stigma fades (but economic problems could also be responsible for 43% rise)

Recession depression: Unpaid bills and redundancy can place great strain on people

Millions are turning to their GPs for antidepressants and therapy referrals as depression loses its stigma, figures suggest.

Use of the drugs soared last year, with more than 41million prescriptions issued.

Of these, almost 23million were for drugs such as Prozac and Seroxat – a 43 per cent rise in four years, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

GPs had predicted the demand would fall after NHS guidelines recommended talking therapies, often in preference to drugs.

But referrals for these also rose last year, up four-fold to nearly 600,000.

Studies show psychological therapies can be as effective as drugs in tackling common mental health problems, and are often more successful in the long term.

However, many GPs admit prescribing antidepressant medications to patients because they cannot get access to psychological solutions and do not want to ‘risk sending a patient away empty-handed’.

Data obtained from the NHS Prescription Services by the BBC found the number of prescriptions for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the most common group of antidepressants, has risen by 43 per cent since 2006 to nearly 23million a year.

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In total, the number of prescriptions issued last year for all antidepressants was up by 10million in just four years.

Just 153,492 referrals for talking therapies took place in 2009/10 compared with almost 600,000 in 2010/11.

Some experts believe there is now less stigma attached to being diagnosed with depression.

WHAT IS CBT?

Dr Daniel Freeman, a consultant clinical psychologist explains...

'At the heart of CBT is the idea that how we think and what we think are important in determining how we feel.

'Imagine
a friend passes you in the street without greeting you. If you think
that means they are annoyed with you then you’ll feel down and may worry
about it. But if you think they were just lost in their own thoughts
then you’ll feel fine. So how we interpret an event is often crucial.

'When
feeling depressed we interpret many things as meaning we are a failure
or unlovable. When anxious we interpret many things as threatening. When
angry we interpret many things as a personal slight.

'So in CBT the idea is that we can feel better if we change our thinking.'

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, said more people were seeking help, and family doctors were responding. She said: ‘The huge increase in antidepressant prescriptions does not necessarily represent new individuals but longer-term use and other factors.

‘We believe, however, that there is an increase in the number of people seeking help for depression which is casting a shadow over their lives, alongside a welcome increase in the number of GPs identifying and treating this condition.

‘Unfortunately, until psychological therapies become more available, doctors have little choice but to prescribe antidepressants or risk sending a patient away empty-handed.

‘Despite the Government’s pledges of money for psychological therapies, we know patients can still wait up to 18 months to be treated by a therapist.

‘The worst risk is untreated depression, which can lead to loss of jobs, loss of relationships and even loss of life.’

Emer O’Neill, chief executive of Depression Alliance UK, said the rise in prescriptions could mean the stigma of depression is beginning to lift.

She said: ‘GPs are better at diagnosing it than before, and there is now a better access to treatment than ever, but there is a higher number of people with depression than there was before.

‘The financial strain on many people has never been worse. They are worried about their spiralling bills and where the next meal is coming from.’

Care services minister Paul Burstow said: ‘We’re boosting funding for talking therapies by £400million over the next four years.’